Introduction

Target Watershed Selection

  • Provincial-scale prioritization process to identify watersheds where barrier are likely limiting factor

  • Resulted in selection of four target watersheds:

  1. Bulkley River Watershed
  2. Elk River Watershed
  3. Horsefly River Watershed
  4. Lower Nicola River Watershed
  • Develop watershed-scale plans to improve freshwater connectivity for target species
    • Identify partners and roles
    • Focus geographic scope of the work
    • Quantify the current connectivity status of the watershed
    • Set goals for gains in connectivity
    • Prioritize barriers and associated costs required to meet goals
    • Action plan with assigned responsibilities

 

Watershed Connectivity Remediation Planning

Outcomes

  • Watershed Connectivity Remediation Plans (WCRPs)
    • “Thematic” plan addressing explicit threat of physical, localized barriers that can be directly remediated
    • Can used as a “module” in broader watershed-scale conservation or restoration plan
    • Focus on priority barriers, account for context with other threats and diminishing returns
    • Living documents, iteratively updated over time
  • WCRP guide document and planning framework
    • Developed concurrently with WCRPs in the four target watersheds
    • Adapts Conservation Standards framework, focused on “theme” of freshwater connectivity
    • Captures tools and lessons learned throughout process
    • Intended to be applicable for any watershed in Canada

Overview

Presentation Content

  • Walk through of key components, using Bulkley outputs as an example
  • Summary of flexible, customizeable suite of B.C. connectivity models

 

WCRP Guide Document

Purpose of guide:

  • Not intended to provide a step-by-step “how-to” guide
  • Provide context, best practices, and considerations for planning to improve freshwater connectivity
  • Suite of customizeable decision support tools to guide strategic planning
  • Inform spatial model development

Components of guide:

  1. Scoping Decisions
  2. Partner engagement
  3. Planning framework
  4. Spatial analyses and modelling

Scoping Decisions

1. Defining “watershed” in watershed-scale

  • Need to define scale and boundaries of watershed = “primary geographic scope”
  • Partner engagement and data management/analysis are difficult as scale increases
  • Largest recommended scale = B.C.’s “watershed groups” or NHN “work units”
Bulkley River

 

2. Identify Target Species

  • Can be single, multiple, or all species in a watershed
  • Group species into life history guilds to facilitate connectivity planning

 

Bulkley Target Species

Anadromous salmonids:

  • Chinook Salmon
  • Coho Salmon
  • Sockeye Salmon
  • Steelhead Trout

Connectivity Dimensions and Barrier Types

Connectivity Dimensions

Recommendation: to prevent “scope creep” WCRPs should focus on localized, physical barriers to connectivity

  • Typically longitudinal or lateral (vertical, temporal, thermal consideration in conjunction)

 

Barrier Types

 

Bulkley River watershed

  • Primary dimension of connectivity = longitudinal
    • Interest to add lateral connectivity in future iterations
  • Barrier types:
    • Dams
    • Road-stream crossings
    • Rail-stream crossings
    • Trail-stream crossings
    • Lateral barriers
    • Natural barriers

 

Partner Engagement

Partner Engagement

Building Trusting Relationships

  • Effective and trusting engagement with local stakeholders and rightsholders is paramount to WCRP success
  • Foster collaborations, support, and establish local values and priorities

 

Key considerations

  • Clearly define the purpose of engagement
  • Outline core values for participation and engagement
  • Identify partners and level of participation
    • No further participation
    • Receive updates
    • Contribute
    • Lead
    • Coordinate
  • Determine methods and frequency of engagement
  • Identify and plan solutions for obstacles to engagement

Indigenous Knowledge

  • Incorporate Indigenous Knowledge and worldviews, ways of knowing, and cultural values where appropriate
  • OCAP principles:
    • Ownership
    • Control
    • Access
    • Possession

 

Planning Framework

Key Components and Decision-Support Tools

  1. Develop supporting spatial models
  2. Conduct Connectivity Status Assessments
  3. Identify and Rate Barrier Types
  4. Conduct a Situation Analysis
  5. Set Connectivity Goals
  6. Define Strategies and Actions
  7. Undertake iterative barrier priortization

 

Spatial Models

Model Inputs

  • Spatial models build on work done by FPTWG and Simon Norris
  • Five fundamental inputs (spatial data, reports, local and Indigenous Knowledge)
  1. Hydrographic network
  2. Species distribution
  3. Species habitat (types/suitability)
  4. Barriers
  5. “Exclusion” areas

Establish Watershed Context and Refine Geographic Scope

Define “potentially accessible” stream segments

“Potentially accessible” stream segments:

  • Permanent natural barriers
  • Physiological barriers
  • Exclusion areas
E.g., Chinook Salmon

 

Bulkley River Watershed

  • Refined to geographic scope to “potentially accessible” stream segments
    • Waterfalls (>5 m height)
    • Gradient threshold (15/20%)
    • ‘Exclusionary areas’
  • “Currently accessible” stream segments
    • Modelled stream-crossings (road, rail, and trail)
    • Assessed stream-crossings
    • Dams

 

Map or Model Habitat

  • Supports the assessment the current connectivity status
  • Planning team decides which habitat types are important and feasible to include (e.g., spawning or rearing)
  • Combination of existing spatial data, reports, local and Indigenous knowledge, and models
  • Part of a decision-support tool to prioritize barriers for field assessment and track progress over time, barrier remediation decisions are not made based soley on habitat model results

Options to delineate habitat types

  1. Explicit habitat mapping
  2. Habitat modelling
  3. Use linear stream kms or lateral areal measures as a proxy for habitat quantity

Bulkley River Watershed

  • Two habitat types: spawning and rearing
  • Simple habitat model derived from Intrinsic Potential habitat modelling framework
  • Identifies stream segments that have a higher potential to support each habitat type, based on thresholds for three geomorphic variables:
    1. Gradient
    2. Discharge
    3. Channel confinement
  • Spawning and rearing habitat was modelled separately for each species, then aggregated by habitat type for connectivity status assessment
  • Model results refined using PSF data, Skeena Knowledge trust data, and local knowledge as validation

 

Quantify Effect of Different Barrier Types

  1. Calculate the amount of habitat upstream and downstream of each individual barrier
    • Can be used to estimate the proportion of habitat that is affected by each barrier type
  2. Calculate the proportion of assessed barriers for each type designated as a Barrier or Potential Barrier

 

Connectivity Status Assessments

Connectivity Status Assessments

  • Habitat-based Key Ecological Attributes (KEAs) and indicators used to estimate the current connectivity status of the watershed
  • Basis for goal-setting and progress-tracking over time

Key Ecological Attributes and Connectivity Status Indicators

 

Bulkey River Watershed

 

Rate Barrier Types

Barrier-type Rating Rubric and Decision-Support Tool

  • Identify and rate barrier types based on:
    1. Extent: proportion of target species’ habitat extent that is affected by the barrier type
    2. Severity: proportion of structures that are restricting passage
    3. Irreversibility: degree to which the effects of the barrier type can be reversed
  • Quantitative and qualitative evaluation
  • The goal is to explore the barrier types that occur and identify those that are most affecting connectivity for target species
  • Decision-support tool to focus action planning

 

Situation Analysis

Conduct Situation Analysis

  • Brainstorming exercise to map out the effects, contributing factors, and potential actions or strategies for barrier types that are high priorities

 

 

Connectivity Goals

Set Goals to Improve Connectivity

  • SMART goals to quantify the desired future connectivity status
  • Important to be realistic and recognize diminishing returns

 

Strategies and Actions

Define Strategies and Actions

 

Barrier Prioritization

Preliminary Barrier Prioritization

Hybrid prioritization approach

  • For each ‘Barrier’ or ‘Potential Barrier’ in the watershed:
    1. Calculate the number of downstream barriers
    2. Rank by the amount of habitat being blocked (but below next upstream barriers)
    3. Evaluate ‘sets’ of barriers together to maximize habitat gains
  • “Intermediate barrier list” for field assessments, represents “suite” required to meet connectivity goals

 

Bulkley River Watershed

Current Connectivity Status

Habitat Type Accessible (km) Total (km) Current Status Goal Gain Required(km)
Spawning habitat 1042.53 1245.30 0.84 0.91 90.70
Rearing habitat 1322.31 2023.59 0.65 0.80 296.56

 

Intermediate Barrier List

 

Estimated overall costs

 

Iterative Implementation Approach

  • Builds on BCFPTWG “Strategic Approach”
  1. Review preliminary list with partners to identify any errors
  2. Identify subset of highly ranked barriers for “intermediate barrier” list - more than needed to meet goals
  3. Perform barrier assessments and habitat confirmations
    • Modelled barriers
    • Assessed barriers
    • Barriers that have undergone habitat confirmation
  4. Move assessed and confirmed barriers to “priority barrier” list
  5. Consider additional factors
    • Species value
    • Habitat quality
    • Cultural value
    • Ownership, type, and cost
    • Logistics
  6. Commission engineering designs
  7. Iteratively update barrier datasets, intermediate and priority lists, and WCRP components
  • Priority barrier list will never be final, until barrier remediation projects are underway